Unexamined patent application DE 199 42 844 A1 discusses a system for identifying motor vehicles during the inspection in a test lane.
Publication EP 0 306 362 B1 discusses a system for detecting and processing data for the inspection of motor vehicles.
In a motor vehicle repair shop, a motor vehicle inspection station, or a comparable facility, the data for identifying a specific motor vehicle are contained in different inspection device-specific databases in today's motor vehicle inspection devices. These inspection devices are usually geared to the task which the particular inspection device must fulfill. In this case, inspection devices include, for example, engine testers, control unit diagnostic testers, emission testers, axle measurement testers, and the like. Each of these inspection devices has in its database its own individual identification characteristics for motor vehicles relating to those aspects which are significant for the particular inspection activity.
The individual identification characteristics, which relate to the identification of the motor vehicle for the particular inspection devices, also have an effect on a specific portion of the user interface; therefore, these portions of the user interface also differ among the inspection devices.
In a repair shop or an inspection station, an employee or technician must identify the motor vehicle anew on each inspection device. Here, under certain circumstances, all identification data which have already been used in one of the previous inspection steps must be collected anew. Furthermore, the employee must be familiar with the particular operation and handling of every inspection device.